It's time to think about goals for the year. I have a few friends who are as goal oriented as I am if not more! Actually, my friend Tracy is an amazing planner and organizer and she always sets up great Facebook groups related to monthly challenges that she creates. I love it because it puts many like-minded people together who encourage each other along the way and also provide accountability. Last year, one of my favorite and most productive challenges came in September when we got rid of "the date" - in other wards, on September 1st, we got rid of one thing, September 2nd, 2 things and so on until we hit September 30th and 30 things had to go! I cleaned out every cupboard and drawer and all the little areas in every room! It was amazing.
Now, Tracy is a math teacher and planning 19 goals is hard because it is a prime number but . .. I'm just like, "What? it's 19" HA! She decided to do 12 monthly goals + 7 daily goals = 19. Great idea but I still tend to focus more on my list of goals and then try to work on them throughout the month! So yes, it's ok to have different ideas with the same end result!
For my yearly goals I'm trying (key word - trying) to focus on some big ideas that I can break down into smaller ideas to work on throughout the year.
1) Stengthen our Family Finances - What can I do to help us being better of financially?
-- I can finally start doing Shipt Shops. Set a goal to do a certain # each week
-- I can possibily get a part time job when my mom is living in the area
-- How else can I save money on areas that we currently spend?
-- Make one month (Januray!) a "no spend month" - spend nothing outside of fuel, food, and pre-planned items outside of bills.
2.) Strengthen my Health - How can I make "me" the focus this year - sounds selfish, but is it really?
-- Schedule all of my appointments from Dental to Vision to yearly doctor appointments
-- Add excercise to our daily routine - I don't know why this is such a hard thing to do!
-- Continue to look for ways to eat healthier - not only for myself but work towards having my boys eat better as well and be willing to try new foods
3. Strengthen our home - I view this as cleaning, organizing, and updating. Finances always play a part in planning goals. So, this year I'm trying to focus on things I feel I can accomplish.
-- Finally get the shelf I want for my scrapbooks, organize them, and make sure they are current with what I have here.
-- Paint the Dining room - we have the paint so it's just a matter of doing it
-- Find a couple of art items for the bathroom
-- Honestly I have a long list of items for our home that will be done based on funds. Items from a backsplash in the kitchen to a new washer and dryer to replacing the garage door. So we will see what the year brings.
-- The basement and garage are always on the list :-)
4.) Strengthen our schooling - Homeschooling is an ongoing plan.
-- Decide if Connections Acadamy continues to be a good fit for our family or find something different
-- Always evaluate whether our homeschool co-op is meeting the needs of our family
-- What other extra activies can/should we be involved in
-- Get back to our routine of Math Minutes (practice) and learning cursive by the end of this school year
-- I'm not sure this fits here but I really want to take the boys to read to the shelter animals, make trips to the library for books to read, and do other fun educational items that come up.
5) Strengthen our Family - This includes activities for our family that builds the feeling of togetherness
-- Camp for the boys - Day camp and a "week camp" is what they would like to do.
-- Look for one activity to do each month as a family (Going to the cat cafe is one of those items I really want to do!)
-- Strive to actually have movie nights - even just once a month. The boys both got Movies for Christmas plus we have access to movies through Amazon so I feel like we can find good things.
-- Read. I need to read more. I have a basket full of books to read (I might go back to my old reading challenge !). I also want my kids to read more. Whether I read to them or they read alone, I need to figure out how to make this happen.
6) Strengthen our Holidays - this is a stretch but since my goal is "strengthen" I wanted to put it here!
-- I finally started my holiday journal in November 2018. It's my "brain" for the holidays. So I want to continue writing it/updating it as we go through holidays
-- Purchase 1 item for our Grinch countdown a month - find neat and intriguing things to add to it that are inexpensive yet fun. By doing this, it takes care of 12/24 days. The other 12 will be candy, $1.00's, or activities. This will take a financial piece away from December!
-- Purchase birthday and Christmas gifts EARLY.
-- Remember to purchase Halloween Costumes EARLY
-- Try to find grade shirts and holiday themed shirts EARLY (get the idea - early is the key!)
-- Keep the meaning in Christmas - I feel like we lost a little this past year because of unexpected car issues and only having one car (the boys and I couldn't do little extra things like library events); I also didn't do our normal advent readings or quick lessons at bedtime. I think I let "life" steal some of my joy and I don't want that to happen again.
7) Strengthen my Scrapbooking :-) - Yes a big stretch again - but it works!
-- I have a lot of goals. One of the main ones is to be current with 2019. That means ordering pictures on the first of each month for the previous month and then scrapbooking throughout the month.
-- The other goals just include trying to get the years I'm behind on done - sorting albums, ordering photos/page prints and just finishing. If I can get busy with Shipt, I feel like I accomplish this more.
8) Commit to Flylady (Ok, "Strengthen Flylady" just didn't sound right!) - I put in alot of effort back in September really decluttering our upstairs so I'd like to implement the Flylady cleaning plan again and really work on staying on top of it all!
9) Finally, I have other goals that don't really fit into any category and really don't fall under "Strengthen" but still are things I'd like to accomplish
-- Play the piano more - As my kids are learning, I want to play more. I've found some great links to free music on line that is more my "speed" - stuff I can just sit down and play.
-- I only sing at church 2-3 times a year so I'd like to pick out 2-3 songs that I maybe already have on hand and learn them well so I'm ready to sing before it's even time. I'd also like to pick out one Christmas song to work on and have it ready for next year.
-- Plan and schedule camping trips - I'm not sure how many. Money always determines this but we do have a family reunion in June that I want us to go to so that is in the works.
I'm sure that more things will get added throughout the year but right now, this is a good plan.
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